The fact Richard Howard was “admittedly a big fish in a small pond” within Sault Ste. Marie’s theatre community lent a creative licence he would not have had in many of the larger centres to which he also shared his skills over a 65-year career, says a native of the city who was mentored by the late director and actor.

“He was able to do things he wanted to do without too critical an eye … That might have been much harder for him to do in a place like a Toronto or elsewhere,” said Will Gartshore, trained by Howard in Sault community theatre in the early- to mid-1990s.

“It was a little bit of a playground for him to try and do the kind of theatre he wanted to do without a whole lot of judgement from folks. And I think he found people that he liked to work with and kept coming back.”

Indeed he did.

Howard, who died here Sunday, taught acting and directing in England, France, Australia, the U.S. and Canada, including in more than 50 Ontario communities, and was feted with countless citations and awards from far and wide. But he forged firm, lasting ties to the Sault, having first come here in 1964 to conduct a weekend theatre seminar and returning the following year to serve as Sault Theatre Workshop’s first permanent director. He’d go on to establish, and serve as artistic director of, Pull-Chain Theatre, for which he’d helm countless local productions.

“I do know he appreciated the physical beauty of the place,” said Gartshore, who went on to study acting in New York and appear in both Broadway and Off-Broadway productions,

“So, I do think there was something about that, that appealed to him. I think that in a certain point in one’s career, a respite from the kind of hullabaloo of the big city theatre scene (is welcomed).”

Howard’s vast experience in the artistic capitals of the world, not to mention his being married for 32 years to internationally acclaimed Russian actress, Lila Kedrova, who won an Oscar for the motion picture, Zorba the Greek, and a Tony for the work’s Broadway musical production, also lent an exotic quality, certain to impress those under his direction.

That was certainly the case for an adolescent Gartshore.

“I think a lot of people responded to him with a sort of almost reverence because of that background, and I think he brought a very different approach to the work to a lot of people in town,” Gartshore told the Sault Star in a telephone interview Tuesday from Washington, D.C., where he works full-time as a World Wildlife Fund lobbyist and continues to act professionally.

“And especially if you are considering a career in the theatre, then you’re looking to those people to be role models and to sort of open the window into a bigger world that is kind of opaque when you’re in your adolescence.”

Born in 1933, Howard was raised in Sarnia, Ont., where he began work in community theatre, acting and directing at a young age. His professional career began as an actor at Stratford Festival, which included its Toronto and Broadway production of Tamburlain the Great and the highly acclaimed film version of Oedipus Rex, under the direction of Sir Tyrone Guthrie. Howard continued acting in theatre, film, television and radio, then turned mostly to directing. In all, he saw over more than 500 productions, some 100 of which for Pull-Chain.

Plays Howard helmed garnered more than 200 awards and his work as an adjudicator, including that for Quonta’s One-Act Festival, is widely recognized.

He was awarded Theatre Ontario’s Maggie Bassett Award for his contribution to theatre in the province and, in 2004, was hailed by the City of Sault Ste. Marie with the Community Recognition Award for Performing Arts.

Sharon Sproule was “grieving” when contacted at her home in Espanola Tuesday afternoon.

“He had a sense of integrity and truth in capital letters. And ability … He was an enormously gifted man,” said Sproule, “nearly 90” and a legend in local theatre in her own right, logging more than five decades with Espanola Little Theatre, serving for a time as teaching director of Espanola YouTHeatre and racking up numerous Quonta and international acting awards.

“It pleases me that he respected my intent in theatre. When he found somebody who was honest in their intent and capable, he loved working with them … and I loved working for him.”

Sproule vividly recalls first laying eyes on Howard — and the unforgettable impression he made. It was some 50 years ago and the director had travelled to the small pulp and paper town 240 kilometres east of Sault Ste. Marie to present a theatre workshop in a United Church basement.

“I was terrified of him,” Sproule recalled with a laugh. “(But) with that terror, came a safe place upon which to stand.

“He would reduce me to tears, because he would be so straightforward. But, I also knew I could trust him if he told me I was achieving.”

Howard’s role as a tough taskmaster was justified — and readily accepted — given his vast international experience and accolades, not to mention solid work ethic, Sproule said.

“It was from him that I learned what discipline was about,” she added. “Not only acting, but if you were not on stage, you were were quiet. You’d shut up. There was this huge respect he had for the art and his sense of truth and devotion.”

The pair met in 1968 in London, England where Howard was studying theatre and Kedrova was appearing in a production of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. They were married that same year on New Year's Eve in Sault Ste. Marie, in the Shingwauk (Bishop Fauquier) chapel on Queen Street East. Kedrova died here in 2000 of pneumonia, after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.

“He worshipped Lila, he truly did … her talent, her artistry, her truth,” Sproule said. “He was a theatre giant. I had such enormous respect for him as a man, as a theatre person and as a friend.”

Robin Waples echoes these sentiments.

“I respected Richard so much for his desire to examine life and relationships and humanity through theatre and how he was able to share deep insight with others,” said the long-time Sault Star theatre critic.

She said Howard had a “difficult childhood” and credited theatre, and theatre people, for giving him a “sense of family.”

“He never stopped searching for meaning and understanding, and that came across in his work in theatre,” Waples said. “He was able to find the truth in a piece of writing and translate that into emotion.”

Howard also played a profound role in preserving Waples’s place in The Sault Star.

In 2004, former editor John Halucha decided to scrap Waples’s critiques because of perceived reader indifference. Howard joined those who went to bat for Waples, and was a leading force in the newspaper’s decision to reverse course.

“It was a gift to this community that Richard settled here and mentored so many,” Waples said. “He had a profound impact on me, personally and professionally, and I will miss him.”

At Howard’s request, there will be no funeral service, celebration of life, “nor gathering of friends to mourn,” reads his obituary. Contributions in his name may be made to the Sault Ste. Marie Humane Society.